Is it just me or is Three coverage THE WORST?

[Issthu]

Years and years of paying to have poor to no signal regardless of which part of the country I'm in (Scotland, Yorkshire, Wales, Midlands, London, Kent) across many different types of phones. Data signal is so so bad. Especially in London. My page is struggling to load even now (for a simple forum). I've called so many times and had silly offers like "we'll reduce £2 off your bill", "have you tried resetting/wiping your phone?", "We're sorry, we value you, turn off data then on again." "Have you tried turning 5G off?". 

The signal when calling is also so bad, I frequently get told people can't hear me.

Three is such an awful network, the only reason I was staying is because I have been on the same network for over 11 years. But its time for me to switch now. Terrible network.

[Skeptical]

I’m surprised that somebody in your position would be on this thread. Why would you take the time? Are you a plant or employee from three? I congratulate you in being able to get data a low population region with older Network technology. Perhaps you are still enjoying the performance of three when most of us joined it.
Almost every comment on this thread I agree with. I’ve been running two contracts with three for nearly 10 years now, originally I came to three because of the continuous data coverage in the Southwest and the ability to travel abroad using data without huge penalties. Both of these benefits have clearly ended. I have no reason to stay with three as I pay for sim only and I am way out of contract. 

Wherever I am in the UK, I have 3 to 5 bars of ‘connection’ most of the time which means that three is right when they say mobile coverage is good. This is known as plausible deniability or ‘telling a half truth’.   However although my phone says the connection is there, there is no data available. I would like to reiterate to any moderators of this thread, there is plenty of telephone connection on my handset meaning I can make a voice call but there is NO DATA being communicated to my phone. I am running an iPhone 14 Pro Max, it’s just over a year old, please don’t blame my technology. I’m really not here to waste my time trying to correct whatever has gone wrong with your company and it’s network. I have stood side-by-side with many EE users who are laughing at me for the apparent lies my phone is making while connected to three network after approximately 2 to 3 years of this, my brand loyalty is gone. I am now looking at this with fresh eyes. 

I think the problem is down to one of these problems 

-contention ratio e.g. not enough capacity built into the network for the number of users paying for it.  (For instance, if you live an Exeter city centre, I don’t think a single byte of data has been transmitted to your phone from the 3 network for nearly 4 years now. 
-There may be an issue with the implementation of new 5G towers because the problems often arise when 5G is around but it had happened before that. 

-If you have a large group of people such as a festival, you may as well turn your phone off (This is not unique to Three. It is down to contention, but it mimics the issue with three almost anywhere, not just at festivals)

Please feel free to contact me and change my mind before I  get around to changing contracts. 

[Anonymous]

Here in rural West Norfolk it’s surprisingly good but then it’s probably because the network isn’t so congested here for obvious reasons. That’s no doubt the reason your data throughput is so bad. Three keep saying they’re going to improve things whilst not acknowledging any issues but it wouldn’t surprise me if we have to wait for the proposed Three/Voda merger to bring network improvements.